Forum:2019-01-30 (Wednesday)
Discussion for comic for . Bored? Looking for something useful to do? There's plenty of wiki editing you can do. ---- Aaand the answer is (d), none of the above! ➤ : Meh. Least interesting option. The whole Rakethorn sub-sub-plot seems very contrived and unnecessary. If Albia wants to keep Agatha in her garden, Spark-appeal would seem to be more motivating. Does anyone think that a shirtless Rakethorn would make Agatha neglect Mechanicsburg or fascinating Nth dimensional beasties? 9thGeneral (talk) 21:56, January 30, 2019 (UTC) I am having a lot of trouble working out the action in panels 2 and 3, including which actually comes first. But either way, between the two of them he's switched hands on the cord holding him up, and in the panel on the right both his hands are full with things other than Agatha, who is nevertheless supported midair by him using... friction? Superglue (like Gil time :-) )? magnetism? ➤ Even in the left panel, it's not clear to me how he's holding her. He told her to put her arms up, but she clearly didn't, and I can't find his right arm at all. But, by the last panel, he's managed to get both arms around her. What a surprise (And, with no hands on the cord, what's holding them up?) ➤ Was he there just so he could rescue her? Or is he, too, spying on the Gray Hoodies? Or... (dum da dum dum) in the Gray Hoodies? (Actually, we're in England, I should say "Grey.") Bkharvey (talk) 05:11, January 30, 2019 (UTC) : He's not holding her up with anything. He lets go of her so he can shoot the critter, simultaneously lets go of the rope, and they drop to the ground together where he Valiantly Protects Her From The Scary Blast With His Naked Muscled Body. She's now supposed to swoon into his arms and say "My Hero!" And.. she won't. Whether he's taking advantage of a useful situation or part of the Evil Conspiracy remains to be seen. --Geoduck42 (talk) 05:20, January 30, 2019 (UTC) :: Ah. So panel 2 is the tall one. Thank you. Bkharvey (talk) 05:23, January 30, 2019 (UTC) : And the coloring makes it confusing, but we're seeing his back in the SWOOP panel. That's his forearm wrapped around her chest. --Geoduck42 (talk) 05:26, January 30, 2019 (UTC) :: Oh! So he didn't switch arms on the cord! You're brilliant. Now please explain why Troggy has removed his mask (before Wooster's blast, so it didn't get blown up). Thank you. Bkharvey (talk) 05:28, January 30, 2019 (UTC) ::: One the critters has it snagged in its pincers. --Geoduck42 (talk) 05:30, January 30, 2019 (UTC) :::: Umm, okay, I see the pincer in question, but considering Troggy's green-and-orange color scheme, that has to be a full-head mask, and the critter is pulling down. (Sorry, I'm a mask fan.) Bkharvey (talk) 05:35, January 30, 2019 (UTC) ::::: Look at the hair sticking up and the eye-socket. It's more being pulled sideways. And even if it wasn't, a pair of jagged pincers could easily shred the thing. --Geoduck42 (talk) 05:46, January 30, 2019 (UTC) :::::: Sideways is just as bad; that mask would come off without shredding only if pulled upward. But okay. As long as we don't see him putting it back on later. Bkharvey (talk) 05:56, January 30, 2019 (UTC) : Re: Rakethorn being a Grey Hoodie, my predictive record is poor, but it seems a viable possibility. He's been in the dome for some time (ref?), knew about the secret temple (or at least the foyer) and yet Albia's law enforcement is no where to be found. He knew enough not to walk on the lava ants, but chose not to warn Agatha or Wooster (his supposedly allied coworker) about the eminent danger. : I've been wondering for a bit about the parallels between England and Paris. Supposedly all-powerful mega spark has rebellion brewing underfoot. Traitorous high ranking people (Steelgarter, Beausoleil) actively trying to gain the throne. In some ways it maps to various epic story telling. You need to destroy the surrounding power structures so the heroine can take on the final villain on her own rather than be supported by a god-queen. In every rising hero movie/book, the mentor has to die or at least be badly disabled so the hero(ine) has to win on the merits of their own team. Just a thought. Still enjoying the ride. 9thGeneral (talk) 21:56, January 30, 2019 (UTC) :: Those things were on the floor waiting to be walked on? I had thought they broke through the floor. And, going along with that, Rakethorn knowing they were there: That changes everything about how I was thinking about this page. If you're right, presumably Agatha, or at least Zeetha, will figure out Rakethorn's role. (Although Zeetha's reaction to his wet t-shirt initial appearance doesn't give me a feeling of confidence.) ➤ ::: With absolutely no evidence, that was my reaction: swarms of burrowing ant-like critters buried under the floor as an ambush. If Rakethorn didn't know they were there, what was he doing up at the ceiling with a Tarzan rope? I am sure there is a perfectly logical explanation. Zeetha's and the other ladies' reaction seemed to be one of appreciation, not of mindless rapture. :::It could go either way with Zeetha. She is familiar with queens and palace intrigue, but is "very bad at the subtle". My previous bet on Violetta was wrong, but I'd go with her or Tarvek uncovering the Albia's garden subplot. Or maybe Klaus-in-Gil if he ever changes his mind (or Gil's mind that he is borrowing?) about Agatha.9thGeneral (talk) 03:15, January 31, 2019 (UTC) :: Albia is not quite parallel to Voltaire in your meta-plot. Voltaire was 100% a good guy. But for Agatha to move on from England, she has to escape from Albia, despite them being allied with respect to Lucrezia. So I don't think we have to worry about Albia's health for the sake of the plot. I've been wrong before, though. ➤ ::: Yup. I didn't mean to say that it was an exact parallel, far from it as that would be boring. I meant to point out that some parts rhymed and that in order for the eventual story to proceed, at some point Albia can't be a major player as she is too powerful. That may be why that one panel got edited. ::: Voltaire was a good guy who blew up spark clubs for learning too much. He was mildly hostile to Agatha at first or at least rather unwelcoming. Albia will have seen other sparks and Heterodynes come and go, so she may be even more jaded and uninterested in the continent. Or Agatha may win her over by uncovering the rebellion, raising Britain, and going after Lucrezia through the mirrors with Albia's endorsement. 9thGeneral (talk) 03:15, January 31, 2019 (UTC) ::::Yipes! What did that panel used to say? I feel like Lars with Krosp saying "Glad you could join us, Lars" to him. More general comment: If this whole thing turns out to be a "By His Bootstraps" story, I am going to (a) get a headache, and (b) be annoyed. Especially if the 7th dimension people turn out to be Agatha and/or Lucrezia. Bkharvey (talk) 06:16, January 31, 2019 (UTC) :::::The original last panel of 26/12/19 had Albia saying "Lucrezia is dangerous, she must be found and destroyed!" :::::Two days later, "Fred1740" pointed out that it had changed and Albia's new final line is "This changes everything. Lurcrezia must be removed from the Lady Heterodyne - at once!". Clearly indicating that time is not causality and history can be re-written ;-) :::::Heinlein and time travel?!? Dem! Now I've got to track that down. :::::I do think it might have been Lucrezia trapped in Von Rijn's lab, but I don't think it was her looming over Mechanicsburg. 9thGeneral (talk) 02:37, February 1, 2019 (UTC) :: I agree that Rakethorn is unlikely to distract Agatha, although Trelawney (not even topless) seems to be doing a job on Gil. And we have only her word that Albia isn't messing with everyone's minds. (I really would like to know what Gil meant by "literally unthinkable" given all the anti-Albia efforts we're seeing.) Bkharvey (talk) 22:58, January 30, 2019 (UTC) :: ::: I went back to check, and the way he introduced himself to Agatha when they first met, it seemed like he had been sent to the Dome itself for just that purpose. "So her Majesty sent me along to you," he said. Granted, if he had been there for a longer period of time I would be highly suspicious at how how a supposedly expert spy missed what was going on, and given how the Grey Cloaks would make a priority out of suborning or removing any spy of the Queen. Case in point, even if he is really only a puppet leader, the #2 of the Dome was one of theirs. 'Black' Victor Cachat (talk) 01:17, January 31, 2019 (UTC) :::: Yes, we knew that he was sent to encourage Agatha to stay. His former assignment was to the Central Armory (shouldn't that be "Armoury"?), a punishment detail after he misplaced some alchemical engines, whatever those are. But nothing on that page suggests that he's a spy as well as a spark. Rather, he seems to be a loose cannon. Bkharvey (talk) 01:49, January 31, 2019 (UTC) ::::: Not on that page, but on the with he and Wooster , it seems clear that they know each other well and both are in Albia's employ with assignments. ::::: It is a good point that he hasn't been in the dome long and thus probably not in the grey cloak society. But neither was Steelgarter. Somehow I had mis-remembered that he was re-assigned within the dome rather than being an outsider. 9thGeneral (talk) 03:15, January 31, 2019 (UTC) :::::: Steelgarter appears to be part of a different conspiracy, if only because the Grey Cloakes scheme centers around an interdimensional demon, while hers is for Skifander. While there may be some overlap between their agents, their goals and methods seem much more different. Also because the murder seemed to catch her by surprise and she tried to rush take advantage of it; if she were with the Grey Cloakes, she could have confirmed their involvement and then afforded to wait until their plan progressed to the point Zeetha would have been distracted by other things than a (obviously harmless) noblewoman. Or just had Quintillius come up with some excuse or other for the rooms of Agatha's companions to be searched (related to the murder case or something 'sciency'), which while tricky would have also been far more laid back. 'Black' Victor Cachat (talk) 03:56, January 31, 2019 (UTC) ::::::: We know for sure that Steelgarter is part of two conspiracies, because of her conversation with Eyeball. His/its conspiracy involves Skifander but is presumably the 7th dimension one; she is also in a conspiracy with Moonbark that involves Skifander but is about her "plans for the throne." Bkharvey (talk) 03:32, February 1, 2019 (UTC) ::::::We don't know for sure how familiar he is with the Society dome. Maybe his immediately prior posting was a punishment, and his antepenultimate posting was in the dome. It does seem likely that helping Agatha find her way around would be one of his duties. Bkharvey (talk) 08:14, January 31, 2019 (UTC) Is the oval in panel 2 between his eye and her hair the button that was holding her sleeve rolled up? Or did he just lose a contact? And, if they were pulling her under, with their jagged pincers, why wasn't she shredded when he grabbed her? And, I've just noticed that he's not wearing a shirt, which lends some weight to the waiting-to-rescue-her theory of why he's there. Bkharvey (talk) 13:24, January 30, 2019 (UTC) Minor additional observation. In the previous page, Trogulus refers to the airlocks as ancient. So how ancient? 300 years is not usually considered "ancient" in our modern England. Old, yes. But Ancient usually means pre-1066 or Roman. Either way, it could indicate that what lies beneath is related to Pandorus Omnisiens or -heh- was put in place by a time travelling Lucrezia to literally undermine Albia. 9thGeneral (talk) 03:15, January 31, 2019 (UTC)